


not a thing to do (but talk to you)

by biremuslupin



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, That 70s Show AU, The Circle, and a soda, remus is pining, someone please buy peter a car he deserves it, they smoke weed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 11:44:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18690826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biremuslupin/pseuds/biremuslupin
Summary: James Potter’s basement is the best hangout spot in Wisconsin. There’s nothing noteworthy about the basement, aside from the TV and the fact that Fleamont and Euphemia Potter hardly ever go down to the basement, but to James and his friends, it’s a safe haven. Nothing ever goes wrong in the basement.





	not a thing to do (but talk to you)

**Author's Note:**

> i've wanted a that 70s show au for YEARS so i made one. 
> 
> shout out to my tf em <3 bc she will appreciate this

James Potter’s basement is the best hangout spot in Wisconsin. There’s nothing noteworthy about the basement, aside from the TV and the fact that Fleamont and Euphemia Potter hardly ever go down to the basement, but to James and his friends, it’s a safe haven. Nothing ever goes wrong in the basement.

That’s not true. Tons of things go wrong in the basement. Sirius and Remus argue constantly because Remus despises Sirius’ taste, or lack thereof, in music; James and Lily have broken up and then gotten back together in said basement at least three times; Conor and Sirius have definitely done it on the couch far too many times for James’ comfort, and while that’s not really something going  _ wrong _ , it’s definitely not something going right.

Nevertheless, the basement is their home. They’ve made it such over the years in which they’ve inhabited it, spending countless hours doing whatever they pleased. Point Place, Wisconsin was endlessly dull, but the basement somewhat made up for that fact. Well, the fact that doing whatever they pleased was relatively easy to do in the basement somewhat made up for that fact.

Recently, doing whatever they pleased tended to be getting high. It had been Remus’ idea originally, and Sirius had called him a moron who would undoubtedly waste his life away, if he hadn’t already. Remus had told him he could fuck off to the mall or something, or wherever it was that rich dicks like Sirus liked to spend their time. Conor had stepped in at that point, because Conor always stepped in when Sirius flashed him a look that told him Sirius would be thoroughly displeased if he didn’t step in, and the argument had ended there. Sirius had merely been a bystander that day, but he’d partaken ever since. Remus would never tell a soul about how hot he thought Sirius looked when he held a joint between his middle and index finger and raised it to his lips or when he let out the smoke and grinned at everyone in the room one by one.

It’s the summer and it’s a Friday night and there’s nothing to do in Point Place in the summer or on a Friday night and so they’re in the basement, passing a joint counterclockwise and hoping James’ parents don’t come home from their weekly date night anytime soon.

“What do you want for your birthday, Pete?” James asks as he leans forward to hand the joint to Peter. His birthday is fastly approaching, he’s turning sixteen, finally, the last of their friend group to do so, and they probably won’t do anything special, but James is endlessly thoughtful, and so he asks anyways.

“A car,” Peter says after a moment of thoughtfully sucking on the joint. “A new one. Preferably bright red. Oh! With the wood on the side, too. They look cooler like that.” He passes the joint to Remus, who rolls his eyes at Peter’s wish.

“James isn’t buying you a damn car, Pete. Ask your moms,” he says, eyes crossing as he tries and fails to watch the joint as he raises it to his lips. He has been smoking the longest, not that this fact truly matters to anyone in the circle. He passes the joint to Sirius, who’s resting against Conor’s chest, Conor’s legs splayed on either side of him.

“Why not?” Sirius asks, and Remus tries hard to look anywhere else as Sirius ever so elegantly holds the joint between his fingers. “He’s got the money to do it, probably.”

Sirius tilts his head just enough that he can see Conor’s face so that he can place the joint between Conor’s lips and Remus looks away at what seems like a strangely intimate moment between the two. It’s not really anything special, but the carelessness with which Sirius does it makes Remus feel as though he’s intruding on something, like he shouldn’t be watching this.

Conor’s hand is resting on Sirius’ knee, and he moves it to instead take the joint out of his mouth, head turned away from Sirius so he doesn’t blow smoke straight into Sirius’ hair. He’s done that before, accidentally, of course, and it ended with Sirius not speaking to him for a day and a half.

“ _ You’ve _ got the money, Sirius,” he says and Remus points at Conor, agreeing with him. Conor leans slightly to pass the joint back to James, and they’ve officially made their first full circle of the night.

“I would buy Pete a car,” James says, although he knows he never would. Not because he didn’t want to, but because it was highly unlikely that his parents would let him buy his friend a car for his birthday, no matter how fond of him they were.

“Thank you, Jimmy,” Peter says as the joint is passed back to him. “ _ See _ , Rem, some people love their friends enough to buy them  _ cars _ .” Peter leans back against the back of the couch, resting his head on a couch cushion and looking up at the basement ceiling. There’s a pencil sticking out of the wood, and he vaguely remembers it being tossed up there by James at some point during the previous school year.

Remus has to lean forward to take the joint from Peter. “I don’t love you enough to buy you a soda, let alone a fucking car.”

Peter doesn’t take offense to this. He makes a dismissive gesture to prove that he couldn’t care less about how much Remus claims to love him. He knows that Remus loves all of his friends, no matter what he says; he’s just a dick who’s bad at expressing his emotions.

“On your birthday, Pete, I’ll buy you as much soda as you like,” Sirius offers as he takes the joint once more.

Remus turns his attention to the pencil Peter has been eyeing for the last few minutes, not wanting to get caught watching Sirius. He’s less discrete when he’s high, and while he’s not very high at the moment, he doesn’t want to risk it.

“What about me?” Conor asks Sirius as he plucks the joint from his fingers, and Sirius takes Conor’s free hand in his, absently toying with his fingers. 

“Your birthday was in February, and you got more than free soda,” Sirius replies, grinning up at Conor, who grins back.

James leans forward to take the joint from Conor, cutting him off before he can say anything else on the matter. He loves Conor, and he loves Sirius, and he loves that they’re happy together, but he doesn’t want to hear any of the details.

The joint is mostly gone, but they’ve got all the time in the world. Or, they have until eleven, at least. James puts it out, and goes about rolling another one. The basement isn’t exactly the perfect place, but it’s a pretty damn good one.


End file.
